Kory, Fall 2011
Kory Wells grew up on the stories of her southern Appalachian family and the wonder of the Space Age. Equally influenced by each, her career has spun into an unexpected but happy tangle of software development, creative writing, and public speaking.
The intersection of Kory’s dual careers occurs in her essay “Really Good for a Girl” which leads the anthology She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. Ladies Home Journal picked Geek as one of its December 2006 “Books We Love” and singled out Kory’s writing that will “resonate with any woman, geek or not.”
Kory’s first poetry collection, Heaven Was the Moon, was published by March Street Press in fall 2009. It’s available on amazon.com and also directly from Kory, the publisher, and local middle Tennessee stores.
Kory often performs her poetry with her daughter Kelsey, a roots musician, in an act that’s been called “bluegrass rap,” “hillbilly cool,” and “moving, fun, spiritual and sassy.” Learn more on the Kory and Kelsey Wells Facebook page.
Her short stories, essays, and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Christian Science Monitor, Literary Mama, Now & Then, Ruminate, Rock & Sling, Pindeldyboz, New Southerner, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Anthology, Birmingham Arts Journal, Southern Women’s Review, Kudzu, and numerous other publications, including obscure literary journals and a cookbook (poetry in a cookbook – yes!) She is currently seeking a publisher for her first novel, which was a finalist in the prestigious William Faulkner competition.
Kory has worked in various aspects of software development for many years, writing binary code, database queries, corporate communications, and everything in between – all jobs which, as her husband often reminds her, pay considerably better than poetry. She is a summa cum laude graduate with a B.S. in computer science and an M.S. in industrial studies from Middle Tennessee State University.
Max loves to keep Kory company in the porch swing. He thinks he's a lap dog.
Kory’s lived most of her life in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she now resides with her husband, two children, and a stubborn but sweet Basset hound, Max. She is the daughter of railroader Jim Green and writer Judy Lee Green. Much of her extended family are from the north Georgia and north Alabama areas. Kory’s grandmother, a great storyteller in her own right, was a sharecropper’s daughter from Varnell, Georgia, whose own grandmother was a Cherokee Indian.
Kory has also been a small business owner, college instructor, student pilot, Girl Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, copy editor and shoe store clerk. She’s always wanted to be an astronaut and a country singer. She owns a fantasy baseball team, always wears sensible shoes, and has a penchant for bracelets and dangly earrings.
